God and Starbucks: An NBA Superstar's Journey Through Addiction and Recovery

Vin Baker · Joe Layden

Jul 2017 · HarperCollins

About this ebook

Vin Baker, an NBA all-star, Olympic gold medalist, and clean-cut preacher’s son, harbored a dark secret: a dependence on drugs and alcohol that began shortly after he turned pro. Eventually becoming a full-blown yet functional alcoholic, Vin convinced himself that he played better under the influence—until his addiction cost him his basketball career, his fortune, and his health. 

But Vin’s story isn’t a tragic fall from grace. It is an enthralling testimony of salvation. For Vin, hitting rock bottom was a difficult yet transformative experience that led him to renew his relationship with God and to embrace life. Howard Schultz of Starbucks and Calvin Butts of Abyssinian Baptist Church offered Vin a helping hand and led him to find more security and happiness in his ordinary working life than he did in all of his years in the glamorous world of professional basketball.

God and Starbucks is a wise, unflinching look at addiction and at the necessity of taking charge and claiming one’s blessings. It is a powerful memoir about reaching the top and beginning again from the bottom—an inspiring personal tale of humility and grace that reminds us of what is truly important.

Ratings and reviews

Inspiring and somewhat heartbreaking at the same time.

About the author

Vin Baker spent thirteen years in the NBA, including four as an all-star. A graduate of the University of Hartford, where he remains the school’s career leader in points and rebounds, he won a gold medal playing for the US Olympic team in 2000 and was selected by the Milwaukee Bucks as the eighth pick in the 1993 NBA draft. He is an assistant pastor and youth minister in his hometown of Old Saybrook, Connecticut. He also works as a consultant for the Bucks and is a member of the Professional Basketball Alumni Association. Baker lives in Old Saybrook with his family. An award-winning journalist and bestselling author, Joe Layden has written more than thirty books, including The Last Great Fight, which was named one of the best sports books of 2007 by Sports Illustrated and the American Library Association. He is also the co-author of the New York Times bestsellers There and Back Again and The Rock Says.... He lives in upstate New York.